The Data Spectrum

The Data Spectrum helps you understand the language of data

Some of us worry about personal health records being “made open”. Some confuse commercial and personal data, or mix up “big data” with “open data”.

To unpack data’s challenges and its benefits, we need to be precise about what these things mean. They should be clear and familiar to everyone, so we can all have informed conversations about how we use them, how they affect us and how we plan for the future.

And it doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be simple. In one image.

Whether big, medium or small, whether state, commercial or personal, the important thing about data is how it is licensed.